Suitors
by Anna Hurley
Summary: As Sir Edward watches his daughter receive and turn down another proposal, he thinks about all the suitors who will come and go and the one who really matters.


Summary: As Sir Edward watches his daughter receives and turns down another proposal, he thinks about all the suitors who will come and go and the one who really matters.

**Suitors**

His name was Michael. The son of a Noble family from London, he was about twenty one, a handsome young man who could provide wealth and security. He had visited Nottingham Shire with his family with the intention of staying only a few days but once he had caught sight of the beautiful sheriff's daughter their plans had changed.

The family had been in the shire for two months now.

Sir Edward watched from the window of Knighton Hall as Marian and Michael walked around the grounds, chaperoned by a maid, Sarah. He was a good young man, Edward had decided, and he cared deeply for his daughter, he would provide for her in every way possible. So when Michael had come to him and asked for Marian's hand in marriage, he had given his permission.

Marian was walking ahead of Michael when he gently took her arm. Marian stopped, turned and faced him. Edward watched as Michael took her hands in his and dropped to his knee. Edward watched as his mouth moved, what he said, he did not know, perhaps they were words of love and devotion or maybe he told her what he could offer, the life she could expect to live as his wife in London, he could never be certain and he would never ask.

Edward watched in silence from the window as Michael finished his speech, a smile on his face as he awaited Marian's answer, an answer he was sure would be yes. Edward watched as the small smile Marian had kept in place on her face fell and she looked to the ground.

Edward sighed and he turned away from the window, not wanting to watch as Marian turned down the young man's proposal, or as the case was not wanting to watch Marian turn down _another_ young man's proposal. Edward wasn't sure what number Michael was, he had decided to stop keeping track after Duncan, who had been the third.

Marian had refused so many good men, men some women of the shire would have given everything just to receive a greeting from let alone a proposal. What they would think of Marian, if all of these proposed engagements ever became public knowledge, was almost frightening. But, Edward knew, they never would. All of the men who had come and sought his daughter's hand and promptly left without it would not air their rejection to the world. They all had too much pride.

Many would think Marian was something horrid because even Edward wondered if she would ever marry now, nearly nineteen with no husband and, at least publically, no prospects. Edward sighed, he didn't want Marian to deal with that.

He sat at the table, his legs aching, he was getting old now and weighing that with Marian's empty finger worried him. He did not want to leave her alone and unprotected, no husband to depend on. The shire wasn't what it used to be, if he passed while Marian was still a maid there would be no telling what might happen to her.

Sometimes he felt that he should pick a suitable man for Marian and insist upon her marrying, but she would not forgive him if he forced her and if he told her of his fears she would say they were unprecedented, that she could take care of herself. He did not doubt it; she was her mother's daughter.

Which, he supposed, is why she had so many suitors.

Edward stole a glance out the window and saw Marian speaking with Michael, who was now standing, his face was hard and he looked both angry and disappointed. Edward wondered more what she was saying to him, then what he had said to her. Had she memorized a speech? Did they all hear the same thing? Did she practice in front of the mirror every time a new suitor came into her life?

Edward watched as Marian slowly kissed Michael's kiss and with a regretful nod, he departed. He watched as she sighed and then studied her ring finger, before looking longingly to a nearby field.

Edward ran a hand over his face. He knew his daughter was thinking of the only ring she had ever accepted. The one that in a fit of anger and grief she had pulled from her hand and thrown at the one had placed it there to begin with. Marian had returned with a brave face, she let no tears fall until later that night, after her former fiancé had left the shire and after she returned to the field desperate to recover her ring, only to find it gone.

Her tears had no stopped for months.

Robin of Locksley.

Edward had never quite understood his daughter's feelings for him. He was a good man and a good and kind Lord and he loved him like a son but for his daughter Robin had never seemed the right choice, even though they were betrothed while Marian was still in her mother's womb.

They had been friends and as they grew they had become flirtatious with each other, there was many a time when Edward had heard Robin's voice radiating from his daughter's room at inappropriate hours, but he did not intervene he trusted Robin and his daughter's judgement enough to know that she would still remain virtuous when the new sun rose.

Robin had not been like the many who had courted Marian since his departure to the Holy Land, he had not asked for permission to court her, they had never taken chaperoned walks or visits, in fact Edward was not aware that their relationship consisted of anything passed friendship, despite Robin's frequent late night visits. To say he was surprised when Marian and Robin had come to him one early morning, hand in hand, and told him they were engaged to be married, was probably an understatement.

Neither of them were aware of their betrothal and it was clear that they weren't doing this out of necessity or obligation, for the first time Edward saw how they looked at each other and saw that they were in love, deeply in love.

Their courtship wasn't traditional and some people were in shock at the quick engagement, some rumours of Marian being with child followed it, before they were squashed by the passing of time. But soon they were forgotten and the people celebrated the match, and awaited both their wedding and their first born babe.

But sadly, neither came.

With the crusades, Robin had felt it was his duty to fight for his king and his country, although sometimes Edward thought he did it for the glory a death in battle would bring. He did not expect Robin to survive the Holy Land and neither did Marian, which is why she threw the ring at him and fled without a proper goodbye.

Something he knew she now regretted.

Edward rose from the chair, the familiar ache running through his body as he went outside to his daughter, she smiled when she saw him coming but he could see the tears in her eyes and by now he knew they were not for Michael but in fact for another suitor, one who came and won her heart before letting it go.

The only one who mattered.

Edward wrapped a comforting arm around his only child, he did not think Robin would live, but Edward knew he _had_ to, for Marian, because Robin was to her what his Katherine had been to him. His one, his other half.

The only one who mattered.

No, Edward was sure he would never quite understand her feelings for Robin of Locksley.


End file.
